Emerald hack: Pokemon Re:Emerald (Improvement Hack) - Version 0.1.0 Released!

[Dreaker75]

Pokemon Re:Emerald

Summary

Re:Emerald is an improvement hack with one goal in mind: to keep the essense of Pokemon Emerald while making it a much more enjoyable experience. You can think of it as a game GameFreak could've made given all the new technologies and QoL features introduced through the years, plus a few ideas of my own to make the experience more enjoyable.

This hack is made using the pokeemerald-expansion decomposition. You can find the source code here: https://github.com/Dreaker75/re-emerald
Please note that this is my first time working on a hack, so I have no idea what I will or won't be able to do, so the feature list could change in the future. I'm also not planning to change any sprites or the main story of the game, this is still a Pokemon Emerald experience, after all. Anyways, onto the features!

Features of the final version

These are what I believe to be the most significant features of the hack that I want the final version to have. If you want to see the full list of features that I'm planning on adding to the game, check out the FUTURE_PLANS file on my GitHub.

Spoiler:

Main features

• All 386 Pokemon will be obtainable, with custom events or locations for all the missing Legendaries
• All the Emerald features will be present and improved upon (Trainer Hill, Contests, Secret Bases, etc)
• QoL improvements galore, from reusable TMs and Auto Run, to permanently removable obstacles and the ability to advance the day by defeating the Elite Four
• There will be updated prizes and prices on the Battle Frontier to give more BP per win in the facilities. The cost of move tutors will also be reduced.
• New swarm mechanic that will start after beating the game and will permanently add a new Pokemon family to the wild once per day
• New post-game content like areas for Legendary Pokemon and Trainers, new fight against the rival, new teams for the Elite Four

Other features

• The rematch system for trainers will be reworked, making it easier to rematch trainers. Their teams will also improve after certain points in the story, like they do in ORAS.
• Breeding Pokemon using a Shiny parent will have singificantly increased chances of the offspring being shiny, and will have a bigger boost if both parents are Shiny.
• IVs, EVs and friendship will be displayed on the Pokemon's summary screen
• The ability to change a Pokemon's nature, ability, IVs and PokeBall will be added.
• Pokemon will no longer get full from eating PokeBlocks, you'll be able to continue feeding them even with a full Sheen. You will also be able to buy PokeBlocks from the Lilycove Department Store.
• Items held by a defeated wild Pokemon or gotten from Pick Up will automatically be put on the bag
• The Safari Zone will be reworked to be much less rng-intensive
• The Roaming mechanic will also be reworked to make it less of a pain to actually find
• The fishing minigame will be removed. All rods will also be guaranteed to land a Pokemon if one exists in that location.
• And a lot of extra QoL changes from the pokeemerald-expansion base that are seen commonly in other hacks.

List of feautres implemented

This is the list of features that have already been added to the game and you can try out in the latest release. You can also check them out in the FEATURE_LIST file on my GitHub, with a more in-depth explanation for some of them.

Spoiler:

Battle changes

Spoiler:

• The loss of money when losing a battle is calculated like in FRLG
• Gen VI+ Exp boost for Pokemon that are above the level they evolve at
• Level 100 Pokemon can gain EVs as normal, like in Gen V+
• Pokemon stats are recaculated (EVs are applied) after every battle, like in Gen V+
• All non-berry items are restored after a battle ends, like in Gen IX+
• When an ability activates, a pop-up appears like in Gen V+
• Moves that hit multiple Pokemon in double battles show all the Pokemon that will be hit before confirming the attack
• Pressing B in a wild battle will move the cursor to the Run option
• The last used Ball can be used by pressing the R button during wild battles, or changed by holding the R button and using the left and right buttons
• Pokemon will evolve even after losing a battle, if the conditions are met, like in Gen VI+

Items changes

Spoiler:

• Items were added and moved around in the game to provide ways to get some previously unobtainable items, as well as repeatable methods for items that didn't previously have them
• Vitamins no longer have a limit of being usable until 100 EVs in the corresponding stat, like in Gen 8+
• The player receives a Premier Ball for every 10 of any Poke Ball bought in one purchase, like in LGPE+
• TMs have infinite uses like in Gen V-VIII and their locations have been changed to accomodate for this change:
  • The TMs in the pickup table have been replaced by other items: TM44 Rest -> Upgrade, TM01 FocusPunch -> Brightpowder, TM26 Earthquake -> Sacred Ash
  • All the Trainer Hill TMs have been removed and the rewards have been overhauled
  • All TMs in the Game Corner have been replaced by type-held items: Silk Scarf, Charcoal, Mystic Water and Miracle Seed
• Modified the Item storage system to work like Gen 4:
  • The PC Item storage has been removed (The slots form here have been moved to the bag)
  • The Bag capacity has been modified to allow for storing 1 of each item in all Pockets except the main items pocket
  • Each item can only have 1 slot in the bag. If the maximum amount (x999) is reached, no more of that item can be obtained, even if the bag has a free slot
  • The main item pocket can now store up to 93 different items (this is still not enough to fit all different items, as there are 139 in Emerald. To add the missing 46 slots I'll have to mess around with the save memory a lot more, which I'll leave for a later version)
• Once a Repel runs out, a pop-up will appear asking which Repel you would like to use, if any

Gameplay changes

Spoiler:

• Running is allowed indoors, as well as super tall grass and wooden bridges like the ones on Pacifidlog Town
• You can now toggle the default moving speed (walking or running) by pressing the R button in the overworld after getting the running shoes. Holding B will let you run at the opposite speed as usual. The toggle has no visual cue at the momment, but does have a sound effect attached to it.
• Synchronize now also forces the nature of Stationary and Gift Pokemon to be the same one as the Pokemon with Synchronize.
• Lightning Rod now has the same effect as Static in the overworld
• Flash Fire now has a 50% chance to force an encounter a Fire-type Pokemon, if one exists in the
• The fishing minigame has been removed for all Rods and using one will now always land a Pokemon
• Move tutors are no longer a one-time use
• PokeRus no longer stops being contagius after a few days have passed
• The Roaming Legendary is now guaranteed to be the first encounter in the route if it's there

Pokemon changes

As of v0.1.0, 202 Pokemon can be obtained in a single file without trading, while 16 more are available by trading with other Re:Emeralds (The Hoenn and Johto starters, and the Latios or Latias not chosen). This is only temporary, the final version will have all 386 available in a single file without needing to trade.

Spoiler:

• Pokemon that evolve through trading now also evolve by leveling up while knowing a specific move:
  • Kadabra: Psychic
  • Machoke: DynamicPunch
  • Graveler: Earthquake
  • Haunter: Shadow Ball (Currently unobtainable)
• Pokemon that evolve through trading while holding an item now also evolve by leveling up while holding said item
• Friendship evolutions now require 160 Friendship to happen, rather than 220
• Legendary Pokemon will have at least 3 perfect IVs
• The maximum amount of EV a Pokemon can have in a single stat is now 252, instead of 255, like in Gen VI+

Location changes

• Table slots and slot % have been tweaked all around (The lowest chance a Pokemon will have to appear is now 5%, although usually they're 10% or higher)
• All RS exclusive Pokemon have been re-added to the wild in their respective locations and the encounters in those places have been tweaked accordingly
• A focus has been put on Emerald being the "shared version" and now, all previous RS version exclusives will have the same chance to appear in their respective location (ex. Lotad and Seedot, Zangoose and Seviper, etc)
• Non-Hoenn mons have been added to many post-game areas, although only a few have been added at the moment. Some examples include Diglett in Desert Underpass or Unown in Altering Cave
• The Feebas mechanic has been reworked. Feebas will still only appear in specific tiles of Route 119 50% of the time, but said tiles are no longer random. Instead, they're based on Feebas' Emerald Pokedex entry.

Breeding changes

Spoiler:

• Breeding Nidoran♂ or Volbeat with a Ditto can now produce Nidoran♀ or Illumise eggs, respectively
• Breeding parents can now pass down the PokeBall to the children, like in Gen VII+
• When breeding, the male parent won't pass down TM moves to the child, like in Gen VI+ (TMs are reusable, anyways)
• The female parent can also pass down Egg Moves (This might be revisited later, as it may allow certain Pokemon to get moves they normally couldn't in Emerald)
• The Eversonte now passes down natures 100% of the time regardless of which parent holds it, like in Gen V+

Field move changes

Spoiler:

• Rock Smash rocks have been divided in two sub-types:
  • Rocks that block the path in some way will now never generate an encounter, and they will not respawn upon leaving the area.
  • Rocks that don't block access to any place now have a 100% chance to generate an encounter, and will respawn upon leaving the area
• Cut trees will stay cut even after reloading the map
• Strength boulders will now stay in place when moved onto the appropiate switches (If it reset after being placed in a switch, it's because the puzzle wouldn't be solvable and it needs to be placed in another switch)
• HMs and field moves can be used by any Pokemon that can learn them, regardless of whether they currently know it (Badges are still needed for HMs). Smeargle is the exception, being the only Pokemon that still needs to know the move to be able to use it.
• HMs can now be replaced just like any other moves
• Field moves show less messages when used
• Waterfall is now automatically used when you try to scale a Waterfall (No more having to stand in front of it and press A)
• Flash has been revamped in a few ways
  • Using Flash in a cave will now light up the entire room
  • The speed of the Flash raidus expanding has been increased to triple its speed to accomodate for the change
  • Flash will now reduce the encounter chance of wild Pokemon on areas where it has been used to a whopping 1/5 of the original
  • A message is displayed the first time you enter a dark cave in each area asking if you want to use Flash
• Teleport has been updated and now works like the old Fly HM, with the addition that it can be used indoors too! (Except in certain locations where it could break the game, like the Elite Four or the Battle Facilities). It still does NOT need a badge to be used, so you can now effectively Fly as soon as you get a Pokemon that can learn Teleport (Like Ralts or Abra)!
• Fly now lets you land on certain routes (those that are far from any towns or cities, or that have useful locations)

Facilities changes

Spoiler:

• Though the Contests themselves remain entirely untouched, a few of the mechanics surrounding them have been changed:
  • Pokemon can now continue eating PokeBlocks after reaching max Sheen, allowing to easily reach max stats on all five contest stats like ORAS
  • Beating a Contest Rank now unlocks the next tier for all Pokemon, much like ORAS
  • Winning a Contest will also award the Ribbons for the lower ranks, and an amount of Luxury Balls depending on the Rank won (The Luxury Balls are awarded regardless of whether the Pokemon got a Ribbon for that Rank)
• The Trainer Hill now gives more battle-related items and does not require beating the mode in under a certain time to get them.
• The prizes for all Battle Tents have been updated, and you can now choose whether you want to claim them or discard them if your bag is full. If you choose to discard them, you will automatically claim as many of the items as you have room for in your bag (These rewards are opened for rebalancing later on if they seem too good/bad).

Battle Frontier

• Increased the amount of BP you get from every Facility. The points awarded now increase infinitely while the streak goes on (Up to the maximum amount of BPs)
• All costs for items in the Battle Frontier shop and all Tutor Moves from the Battle Frontier have been singificantly reduced
• New items have been added to the Battle Frontier shop
• The amount of BP Scott gives you upon first arriving in the Battle Frontier has been changed. He now gives 5, 10, 15 or 20 BP depending on how many times you've talked to him before arriving.
  • If you talk to Scott all 13 times before talking to him in the Battle Frontier, he will give you a Choice Band as an extra gift

Map changes

Spoiler:

• Added a Rock Smash and a Strength Boulder to Route 115 that allows for easier backtracking to Meteor Falls
• Moved the Sudowoodo in the Battle Frontier 1 tile up so it doesn't block the way to Artisan Cave. This is to deal with the fact that it can now respawn every day
• Modified the ledges section to Lavaridge City to make it possible to reach it from Route 112 after getting access to Strength
• Added a few respawnable breakable rocks to Victory Road for anyone wanting to grind off of them
• Made some slight tweaks to some of the Seafloor Cavern rooms

Other changes

Spoiler:

• Added an extra text speed option that display all the text instantly, which is turned on by default
• Defeating the Elite Four now resets a few daily events like gifts and the Lillycove lottery
• All Legendary Pokemon (Including the roamer) will now respawn the following day if they are defeated (This is also affected by defeating the Elite Four)
• Sudowoodo will respawn every day whether it was defeated or caught
• Releasing a Legendary Pokemon will allow them to be caught again starting the following day
• The prizes for the Pokemon Lottery Corner have been updated and also give a reward for matching 1 number.
• Return, Frustration and Hidden Power now show their real power in the Pokemon Summary
• Hidden Power now shows its real type and category in the Pokemon Summary and the in-battle menu
• The Pokemon Center Nurses now have less dialogue and animations for healing your Pokemon. Getting all 4 Trainer Stars also reduces the dialogue further like in vanilla Emerald
• The player automatically faces down after healing at a Pokemon Center.
• The NPC at the rest house on Route 111 no longer asks you if you want to keep resting until you say no.
• Move Pokemon and Move Item options in the PC now appear before Withdraw and Deposit Pokemon like in newer games
• Pressing B while moving a Pokemon on the PC deposits the Pokemon
• Added the Japan exclusive wallpapers for the PC Boxes
• Removed the second save confirmation popup, the game will now save after the first one. The warning for saving when a different file exists was left untouched.
• Removed Wally's tutorial battle and the PokeNav's tutorial call to Mr. Stone
• Petalburg Gym's doors can now be opened just by walking like the rest of the doors
• Fixed the bug that caused the Mart Employee in Oldale Town to walk through the Shop's wall and into a tree under certain circumstances
• Scientist in Devon Corp that revives the Fossils can now revive Kanto Fossils, and no longer requires talking to someone else or leaving the room to claim the Pokemon.
• Using a PP Up or PP Max no longer returns you to the bag after using them or when trying to use them in a move with maxed out PP.
• ADDED VERSION NUMBER TO THE MAIN MENU TO EASILY KNOW THE CURRENT VERSION OF THE GAME

If you're curious about how the project is going, you can check out my CHANGELOG as well, to know what you can expect to see in the next version of the game.

Plans

Since posting here for the first time, my plans on how to tackle this game have changed significantly. You can get the long version on my FEATURE_LIST file, but the tl;dr is: instead of trying to push for an Alpha, Beta and Final version, I'll be working on a numeric system where I'll progressively add any features I want. This lets me release more bite-sized updates and takes the stress off having to finish everything for the next release, which means you get updates faster (hopefully)!

After I've included all the features I want in the main game, I have a few extra ideas that I would like to work on. I'm still debating whether this will be an update to Re:Emerald or an entirely new hack, but that's something to consider IF I ever get to that point. If you're curious as to what these ideas are, you can see them in the FUTURE_PLANS, on the Backlog section.

Screenshots

Spoiler:

Trailer

Check out the trailer released for version 0.1.0!

Credits

• The pokeemerald-expansion community. Without their base, none of this would've been possible!
• This post by ellabrella on PokeCommunity, for help setting up the Instant Text option https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/simple-modifications-directory.416647/post-10400198
• Bassoonian's commit on the fix for the bug that didn't allow you to enter any facility if any Pokemon Generation was disabled: https://github.com/rh-hideout/pokeemerald-expansion/commit/9ff30ee87ae5c0af11d33206c4f8f4eaa77c7447
• damon-murdoch's commit that fixed an error when disabling the Debug menus: https://github.com/rh-hideout/pokee...iles/6904bcd56c52f775797032c64f3541ccb4ad5d77

Discord Server

If you're interested, I have a Discord Server you can join where you can report any bugs or ask any questions in a more interactive way, if posting in a forum is not to your liking. Please note that the Discord Server is not a Re:Emerald-exclusive server, but rather my own personal server where I interact with everyone. But worry not, you can pick and choose exactly what you want to see in there.

Known Emulator Issues

• The MyBoy emulator for mobile has been reported to crash when getting into a fight in the Safari Zone. I recomend using a different emulator if you can, as MyBoy is known to have issues running romhacks, especially ones made through the pokeemerald decomp.

Download

You can patch the version 0.1.0 of this game by downloading the bps patch or the ups patch and using RomPatcherJS (or your patcher of choice) with the following rom:

1961 - Pokemon - Emerald Version (USA, Europe)
CRC32: 1f1c08fb
MD5: 605b89b67018abcea91e693a4dd25be3
SHA-1: f3ae088181bf583e55daf962a92bb46f4f1d07b7

Closing thoughts

As this is mainly an Emerald reimagining, there is a few features I'm not planning to add to this hack. You can find the list below if you're curious.

Spoiler:

• Physical/Special split
• Any Pokemon, items, abilities, attacks or anything else from Gen IV onwards
• Decapitalization. This is more of a personal take, but I actually prefer the fully capitalized words for Gen III hacks. Plus, it also keeps true to the essence of Emerald.

If you have any questions or ideas, feel free to let me know. I may have just missed a feature that might be a good addition to the hack. Just make sure to check the list above before doing so.

 

[ProjectHawke]

This looks like a cool project and initiative 😁
Will this be compatible with randomizers (for example Universal Pokemon Randomizer ZX), or Archipelago patch files/multiworlds?

 

[Dreaker75]

Hey, glad you like it!
Unfortunately, I'm not experienced with randomizers and the like, so I can't say for sure whether it'd be compatible with them. Though most likely it won't be, due to the amount of changes that I'll be doing to the memory, but we'll see once the final version's out.

 

[adraido]

This sounds pretty neat. I like Emerald and I actually like the fact that I have to only catch what was available in the Ruby, Sapphire & Emerald. Makes it more manageable than like 800 pokemon. Looking forward to playing this.

I especially like this:

• Updated prizes and prices on the Battle Frontier to give more BP per win in the facilities, and reducing the cost in the Battle Frontier shop and move tutors
• New swarm mechanic that will start after beating the game and will permanently add a new Pokemon family to the wild once per day

 

[Dreaker75]

This sounds pretty neat. I like Emerald and I actually like the fact that I have to only catch what was available in the Ruby, Sapphire & Emerald. Makes it more manageable than like 800 pokemon. Looking forward to playing this.

I especially like this:

Thank you for your kind words!

Yeah, I feel the same way about having 900+ Pokemon in a single hack, the games weren't quite built for that. Though my main reason is that I love doing Living Dexes, but there's only enough space in the boxes for 420 mons 😅

I'm glad you like the changes I have in mind! The Battle Frontier changes should be ready for the Alpha version, so you can look forward to that. The Swarm mechanic is going to take a bit more research to code it, however.

 

[adraido]

Thank you for your kind words!

Yeah, I feel the same way about having 900+ Pokemon in a single hack, the games weren't quite built for that. Though my main reason is that I love doing Living Dexes, but there's only enough space in the boxes for 420 mons 😅

I'm glad you like the changes I have in mind! The Battle Frontier changes should be ready for the Alpha version, so you can look forward to that. The Swarm mechanic is going to take a bit more research to code it, however.

No problem at all. Looking forward to playing this. Does that mean the Alpha is gonna be going all the way to the Frontier? because that would be amazing.

Anyway, I have yet to see a mechanic as unique as that so the time makes total sense. A bunch of the other features like rng for Safari and more BP alone sound nice enough.

Will definitely be playing this.

 

[Dreaker75]

Yeah, I say Alpha and Beta, but they don't really work like other games. Because this hack is using Emerald as a base, and all I'm doing is small improvements everywhere, the game will be playable from start to finish in every version. Maybe I should call the versions something else so it's not confusing.

There's also a large number of features that I didn't mention because the list is so big, so if you're curious as to what each version will have you can take a look at the Readme and Future Plans files I have linked.

Anyways, gald to see there's interest for this 😄 I know there's quite a few Emerald improvement hacks out there.

 

[adraido]

That is a good point. I overlooked that, pokemerald-expansion is quite a sweet thing.

I wonder how involved it would be to change up the chance of appearance of certain pokemon that are usually rare.
Say changing it so that each time you encounter something, there's a more likely chance for a different pokemon to appear instead of the same one over and over.
That's something that would make any hack stand out for me. It really breaks up the tediousness, especially when you are trying to build your team early on.

I took a look at your beta plans and they are really neat as well. There are a lot of Emerald hacks for sure but only a few of them really stand out. I think I've seen at least some that just die out too quick or focus on "difficulty" so that could turn a lot of people off.

One thing I would say for sure because you mentioned some post game tickets, is to make them accessible as much as you possibly can manage, maybe you get new quests to obtain them or battle a boss. Honestly grinding for stuff like that could really get tedious when it's behind something like going through and collecting any sort of points/currency, especially when it's a lot of said currency. Especially when you're in post game and now you just want to explore new stuff that was locked in vanilla Emerald.

Other than that, this hack looks pretty good, it seems like anyone could pick it up and play it without worrying too much and it's recent so that's always a plus. Just wanted to throw out a couple more ideas. Maybe they help for the release.

 

[Dreaker75]

Yeah, coding something dynamic like that requires reworking how the project works more than a little, so it's probably why you usually don't see those types of changes. Or maybe it's just that no one really thought about it until now. Although I didn't do that, I did get tired of super rare Pokemon that weren't event that powerful as well, so I changed the slots around so the rarest a Pokemon can be in any given encounter is 5%, but I tend to go for at least 10% for stuff that is new.

Also, as a side note on changing the way the project works, that is precisely why I don't know how long it will take to make the new swarm mechanic, or if it's even possible at all. The source code wasn't really built with that in mind, so I'd have to see how I go about it.

Yeah, I'm definitely not a fan of difficulty hacks, so you won't have to worry about that here. Plus, I'm not even good enough at Pokemon to come up with proper teams and challenges for an entire game.

Oh, so for those tickets, what I meant was specifically the event tickets that unlock the Legendaries in those games, like the Aurora Ticket and the Eon Ticket. Those will be available after doing certain tasks (Just as an example, I'm thinking of giving the Old Sea Map for Mew after getting the Contest Trainer Star). I'm really curious now, cause it sounded like you were talking about a different kind of ticket, and if that's the case I'd love to hear more about it, cause it sounded interesting. Although, maybe for after the final version, because my idea was to not add any new items, Pokemon or battle mechanics, just to keep it as close to the vanilla version as possible.

I really appreciate your ideas, though. My plans are definitely not set in stone. I do want to avoid adding a lot of stuff just so I can have a "final version" out at some point, but if it's a QoL feature or something that I feel NEEDS to be on there I'll add it. In fact, I'll probably be adding a whole lot more QoL features after seeing all the improvement branches there are for emerald-expansion. There's quite a few features from there I'd like to add to the hack.

 

[adraido]

Yeah, coding something dynamic like that requires reworking how the project works more than a little, so it's probably why you usually don't see those types of changes. Or maybe it's just that no one really thought about it until now. Although I didn't do that, I did get tired of super rare Pokemon that weren't event that powerful as well, so I changed the slots around so the rarest a Pokemon can be in any given encounter is 5%, but I tend to go for at least 10% for stuff that is new.

Also, as a side note on changing the way the project works, that is precisely why I don't know how long it will take to make the new swarm mechanic, or if it's even possible at all. The source code wasn't really built with that in mind, so I'd have to see how I go about it.

Yeah, I'm definitely not a fan of difficulty hacks, so you won't have to worry about that here. Plus, I'm not even good enough at Pokemon to come up with proper teams and challenges for an entire game.

Oh, so for those tickets, what I meant was specifically the event tickets that unlock the Legendaries in those games, like the Aurora Ticket and the Eon Ticket. Those will be available after doing certain tasks (Just as an example, I'm thinking of giving the Old Sea Map for Mew after getting the Contest Trainer Star). I'm really curious now, cause it sounded like you were talking about a different kind of ticket, and if that's the case I'd love to hear more about it, cause it sounded interesting. Although, maybe for after the final version, because my idea was to not add any new items, Pokemon or battle mechanics, just to keep it as close to the vanilla version as possible.

I really appreciate your ideas, though. My plans are definitely not set in stone. I do want to avoid adding a lot of stuff just so I can have a "final version" out at some point, but if it's a QoL feature or something that I feel NEEDS to be on there I'll add it. In fact, I'll probably be adding a whole lot more QoL features after seeing all the improvement branches there are for emerald-expansion. There's quite a few features from there I'd like to add to the hack.

Nice, that makes sense, then maybe swarm is a better answer for sure. Excuse my ignorance.

That puts it even more into perspective. Makes sense why its last for sure but there's no current of changing encounters like that, so swarm is a patch to that.

Sweet. Same here and I've just gotten back into Pokemon via hacks so although it's nice to see them, all I could do is admire them from afar. Haha.

Those are the exact tickets I'm talking about, I just wanted to avoid mentioning them directly in case people don't wanna know about them just yet. The way you're doing that one sounds nice. I know I'd prefer something like those for beating the Trickhouse and completing the Lilycove Museum rather than base items. I mean they're nice but how are they useful? Haha.

Thank you so much. Totally understand. They're just something I thought of that could get added whenever you feel necessary in case you find them useful.

Also take a look at Modern Emerald. That one is pretty complete (really complete and some incoming update) and it has a vanilla experience that I mostly enjoyed except for that ticket stuff.
That one has a lot of options but I think it does a really nice job of Emerald and it keeps close to Vanilla I feel even with all the stuff he added. Lots of good ideas there and that hack is underrated.
I understand that's different than the branches of Expansion.

 

[Dreaker75]

You're good, can't expect everyone to know how the code works. Heck, I'm not even sure how it works sometimes.

Ohh, a prize for completing the Trick House is a good idea, hadn't thought of that. Might steal that idea As "useless" as they are, I'm still leaving those items there, since I quite enjoy being able to display those achievements on your secret base. I love the secret base mechanic all around, so I'll try to expand it a bit for sure.

I did notice Modern Emerald. There's quite a few Emerald hacks that are just improvements, I recently found another too. Though I have to go back through them and see if there's any improvements they made that I'd like to add. The thing for wild Pokemon dropping their items automatically is defo one I wanted to add after looking at Modern Emerald's feature list.

 

[adraido]

You're good, can't expect everyone to know how the code works. Heck, I'm not even sure how it works sometimes.

Ohh, a prize for completing the Trick House is a good idea, hadn't thought of that. Might steal that idea As "useless" as they are, I'm still leaving those items there, since I quite enjoy being able to display those achievements on your secret base. I love the secret base mechanic all around, so I'll try to expand it a bit for sure.

I did notice Modern Emerald. There's quite a few Emerald hacks that are just improvements, I recently found another too. Though I have to go back through them and see if there's any improvements they made that I'd like to add. The thing for wild Pokemon dropping their items automatically is defo one I wanted to add after looking at Modern Emerald's feature list.

Props to you for this endeavor, I read a tutorial on romhacking and I'm like: I need to know C, I'm gonna die. Haha

Please steal it. I just think I should get more than just a tent for completing all that. Secret bases do look nice but I never even visit mine cause I found no point to it. There's just so much that could have been done with that and I think GF missed. At least have a bed for healing and maybe make the laptop be able to have Pokemon deposit and stuff, at least that's a start and would be incredibly useful. I'm looking forward to seeing what those expansions are and feel free to take whatever you want.

The item drop thing has been super helpful. It's been a game changer but the big one I initially just handwaved was followers but that one has been the biggest game changer. I never knew such a feature would make me look at Emerald so differently as that one feature. Followers was an absolute epic idea that I think makes Modern Emerald really stand out. Never knew I even wanted that.

Note: I'm just spitballing here and general ideas. Don't ever feel pressured in any way to go at these right away. Go at whatever pace you see fit and like your mom says "Just do what you can" This is your project and we just appreciate people like you listening to people like us.

 

[Dreaker75]

Haha, yeah, it's not for everyone.

Ohhh, that is a really cool idea for bases. Not gonna lie, I still haven't thought about how to really improve them outside of "more items", so I might write some of those ideas down for the future. Though they'll probably be for the final version.

Ok, this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I didn't really mind follower Pokemon that much. I think it was definitely neat and I see the appeal, but as a mechanic, it wasn't super useful for much. That's why I'm probably not gonna add it to my version. Well, that's one reason, the other reason is that that mechanic gets complicated and starts needing you to set up extra palettes and stuff for the following Pokemon, and that is beyond my current scope. But definitely props to anyone who can pull it off in a GBA game. Not to mention you have to make all the sprites themselves, since Emerald didn't have them.

I like hearing other people's ideas. I might not always be able/want to implement them, but you'll get full transparency from me about that. I'll defo try to think of some way to spice up the secret bases for the final version though, probably take a page or 3 out of ORAS, even

 

[adraido]

Haha, yeah, it's not for everyone.

Ohhh, that is a really cool idea for bases. Not gonna lie, I still haven't thought about how to really improve them outside of "more items", so I might write some of those ideas down for the future. Though they'll probably be for the final version.

Ok, this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I didn't really mind follower Pokemon that much. I think it was definitely neat and I see the appeal, but as a mechanic, it wasn't super useful for much. That's why I'm probably not gonna add it to my version. Well, that's one reason, the other reason is that that mechanic gets complicated and starts needing you to set up extra palettes and stuff for the following Pokemon, and that is beyond my current scope. But definitely props to anyone who can pull it off in a GBA game. Not to mention you have to make all the sprites themselves, since Emerald didn't have them.

I like hearing other people's ideas. I might not always be able/want to implement them, but you'll get full transparency from me about that. I'll defo try to think of some way to spice up the secret bases for the final version though, probably take a page or 3 out of ORAS, even

True.

For sure. I wanna see what you do with them either way.

I found it useful as a quick way to gauge friendship. So this is something that decomp base has no resources on? ah ok. Then I see what you mean. Makes sense, then. Even Modern Emerald did it the same way. He only did it once the scope was expanded, so my guess is that he finished his main and then added them.

Nice, it sounds like a pretty good way to go about it. You got this.

 

[Dreaker75]

Yeah, that sounds likely for Modern Emerald. pokeemerald-expansion doesn't come with anything regarding follower Pokemon at the moment. Someone might have a branch you can pull from to add it to your project, but I haven't gone looking for it, so I'm not sure.

Anyways, thank you for your patience. This is a learning process for me as well. Like, stuff that might seem easy to code might not be as much, and viceversa as well. You never know what to expect, haha.

 

[Dreaker75]

Sorry it took quite a lot longer than I expected, but I just finished the first version of Re:Emerald! I've updated the first post with the download link and a few other things, so make sure to check it out and let me know what you think! 😁

 

[icanonlyhasgbagames]

Looks promising.

 

[greenDarkness]

Woah! This is a cool quality of life hack! Hope that you'll consider adding some fun ways to get Pokemon with good stats. Perhaps something along the line of Crystal Clear's chaining system?
Looking forward to checking it out!

 

[Dreaker75]

Thank you both for your kind words :)

...Hope that you'll consider adding some fun ways to get Pokemon with good stats. Perhaps something along the line of Crystal Clear's chaining system?...

To answer your question, Re:Emerald won't have chaining, but it will have NPCs to let you tweak your Pokemon's IVs, Nature and Ability.That being said, I do have an idea for a chain mechanic that I'd like to try, but I'm not planning on working on it until after everything else in Re:Emerald is done, at the very least.

 

[greenDarkness]

Thank you both for your kind words :)


To answer your question, Re:Emerald won't have chaining, but it will have NPCs to let you tweak your Pokemon's IVs, Nature and Ability.That being said, I do have an idea for a chain mechanic that I'd like to try, but I'm not planning on working on it until after everything else in Re:Emerald is done, at the very least.

Always happy to see QoL hacks! ^_^

Awesome! I'll be looking forward to seeing that NPC then! It would be super neat if that NPC also gave the Pokemon a corresponding PID so that they would be transfer friendly.
Hyped for the next update! Thanks for making a cool hack!